Fountain Valley City Manager Ray Kromer is wrong [“57 freeway may get long-awaited extension,” Local, April 1]. The I-57 Freeway extension will not add to traffic congestion. Rather, it will relieve congestion on the I-405, surface streets, and the I-55 Freeway which, due to the same lack of planning foresight, ends abruptly at a traffic light (and gridlock) at 19th Street in Costa Mesa.

The lofty goal of signal synchronization is all but impossible due to failure to address the conflict between through traffic and local traffic.

Planners have long understood that we simply cannot “idiot-proof” every intersection -including side streets and shopping center driveways – without bringing traffic to a standstill.

Travel out-of-state; arterial streets and highways clearly have priority. Signals and access points are widely spaced and favor through traffic, which actually moves.

Richard Deight

Orange

Embarrassingly incompetentEvery morning I go out to my driveway, I pick up the O.C. Register expecting to see that Congressman Barney Franks and Senator Chris Dodd have been removed. They are embarrassingly incompetent and a major factor for the financial mess we are facing. In the private sector they would have been fired long ago.

Karen VoigtCosta Mesa

Obama over-reachedI heard that President Obama and other G-20 world leaders just saved the world. The price tag was another trillion dollars and for America to hand over its financial regulatory powers to a new European entity. The new Financial Stability Board would regulate global financial economies and implement “new rules on pay and bonuses” for executives. By granting a global body power over its people and business, Obama over-reached his authority. America’s soul is being sold and some day some joker in Brussels will determine your pay. Americans should read the Constitution and the Bill of Rights before it’s too late.

Brett TrimperGarden Grove

Will the nations help now?In his letter, Steven Lopez seems to still be swiggin’ from the same ol’ pre-election Kool-Aid jug the Bush-haters mixed up [“Obama gets due respect,” Letters, April 3]. He said, “With President Obama getting the respect he deserves from the other world leaders, we can end the war in Iraq, catch Osama bin Laden and end terrorist attacks against the U.S. and our interests.” He forgot to mention that he’ll part the seas, heal the sick and walk on water. Mr. Lopez, please tell me which magic wand the Majestic One will wave to accomplish these feats? Are you too dogmatic to understand that the nations that opposed the Iraq war did so because their financial interests were at stake (France, Germany, Russia and China)?And if Iraq was “the wrong war, at the wrong time and the wrong place” while Afghanistan is the “just war,” why aren’t these countries lining up to help us find bin Laden, destroy the resurgent Taliban and end terrorism once? Tim StreitCoto de Caza

In response to a letter by Steven Lopez: Steven, how are things in the land of Oz?

Ronald BastienHuntington Beach

Saddest Memorial Day in historyMemorial Day will be one of the saddest in history. Think of all the freedoms that our brave men and women have fought for so we could be free. We’ve always said they did not die in vain but one must wonder when they see our president taking away our freedoms, one at a time. The greatest danger to our nation is not the southern or northern borders but by this very smooth speaker who intentionally degrades all that America stands for.

Abbott TroutSanta Ana

America is not perfect, but still greatIt seems that the 44th president is outsourcing jobs abroad. He’s taken the “trash America” jobs from Sean Penn, Danny Glover and Harry Belafonte. He was doing more apologizing for American arrogance, Wall Street, banking institutions and the wealthy than he was telling the world about the greatness of our beautiful America. As for me, I don’t need president “44” to apologize for me or my fellow countrymen who see America for her greatness, not her shortcomings – the America that helped rescue the world from Hitler, Tojo and the like.

Setting the renter record straightIn my previous letter, I was comparing a renter’s allowable tax deductions to a homeowners with a similar income, not to their landlord [“Renters get squeezed,” Letters, April 1]. I’m aware that a landlord gets a tax deduction for interest expenses – it’s a business. But what about some of the other tax loopholes afforded the landlord?

Landlords get to write off depreciation expense on their building, not land, despite the fact that the property usually appreciates. But when the property is sold the profit will be taxed as a capital gain, right?

No, what usually happens is the property is traded for another in a tax-deferred exchange hence, no taxes paid. Or, the owner refinances it until they die and then transfers it to their heirs at the current market value – no tax paid again.

If I were a landlord, I would keep quiet before the tax man starts looking my way.

Clem DominguezHuntington Beach

Only in AmericaWhat a country we live in! Only in America can you enter illegally and after being arrested for said illegal act, turn around and sue the government because you didn’t like the way you were treated. I’m not trying to justify the way Mr. Flores said he was treated by ICE, but I do know that being arrested is not supposed to be a pleasant experience. I wouldn’t enjoy spending time in jail so I don’t plan on committing crimes. My advice to Mr. Flores would be; had you come to this country the right way, you would not have been subject to the “evil” ICE people and their horrible mistreatment of you. Take your lumps and come back to this country the right way and you won’t have to worry about this ever happening again.

Don MoreauCypress

Let the market correct itselfReaganism and Thatcherism have failed. Or so says the socialist.

Socialists meddle in the free market and try to manipulate it through laws and politics. When the results are bad, they claim capitalism has failed and that we need to push even harder for socialism.

The current political and economic situation was created, not by the free market, but by government meddling with the free market.

The bureaucrats perpetuate the problem by refusing to allow the market to correct itself. You can expect greater disasters and a greater push by to socialize the globe.

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